Photo and buddy system

[Teamcasa]

Diving and photography/videography requires a great deal of communication, both before the dive and during it. Since the majority of my diving is with my video camera and my regular buddy, my lovely bride, it works out great. She understands and anticipates my moves when the camera is on and helps identify objects to be taped. The synergy is amazing.

On occasion we end up with a third. Communication becomes more important than ever. The third has to realize that I will be there for my wife first, him second. The buddy also has to realize that I’m diving to videotape. He will have to adjust to that. Sometime they choose to not dive with us, sometime they do.

 

[TSandM]

I will not be part of a three person team in the middle of the ocean anytime soon, unless I know my buddies extremely well. Even then, my camera will be waiting for me on the boat.

The situation you describe is the result of either poor training or poor pre-dive communication, or both. The people I dive with would NOT swim away from a stopped buddy, especially after a signal was given. Or, they might swim away a couple of feet, but they would almost instantly recognize that the buddy wasn't coming with, and stop and check out why. And if we're diving as two non-photographers escorting a photo person, we'd be even more quickly aware of that photographer stopping to get his shot.

We just don't leave each other. This is pounded in in every class, every dive; one of the worst sins you can commit is to lose awareness of your team.

 

[diver 85]

Hi there,
I started diving with my camera 7 dives ago, just because now I feel with enough buoyacy control and confy with my equipment.
Being new in this, it seems that diving with a camera is a completelly different dive than without it.
Photoshooting focus yor attention on small spots and drive your way near those spots, while the no photo diver have a more general scope and eventually focus on spots but they do not reach them as close.
In this case I enjoyed to be at the bottom near the reef and my buddy was 6 feet above me all the time and at the end told me that she would enjoy more the dive without the camera in terms of security.
What suggestions do you have for this situation in terms of mutual security and enjoy photosooting.
Appreciate all your valuable comments comming from your experience.

get your buddy a camera------also......

 

[alcina]

Just curious, why?

I don't want to hijack this thread - this just isn't how I want to dive.

 

[fairybasslet]

I don't want to hijack this thread - this just isn't how I want to dive.

I guess it's like...if you have to ask...

 

[BlueCrab]

Every comment has been preetty interesting ( thanks to everyone) and make me think that communication and planning are the base of a safe photo dive, and changes from each situation and buddies involved, but just let me just ask in addition:

Females are multitask and males we are unitask, I know that for sure, so underwater happens to be the same ? See, no "macho system" is involved here.

Might this mean that in general a female photographer will handle easier the buddy system than a male, I mean the consciousness of a female diver has better awareness of the whole and the spot than a male photographer ? Would it depend more on the person ? Would skills, communication, planning and practice help to close the gap ? What´s your experience instructors ?

 

[alcina]

It's not gender related. It's awareness and communication based. That can be improved with training and practice.

It's pretty simple, really. Plan your dive. Dive the plan. There's nothing more to it

 

[NancyLynn]

The situation you describe is the result of either poor training or poor pre-dive communication, or both.

I don't disagree - but you'd think I could at least count on the training of the divemaster, and the other buddy and I had talked ahead of time about taking the camera along and decided only one of us would go with a camera - precisely because we didn't want two of us distracted from diving.

Bottom line - at least with relatively unknown buddies I feel safer with one who is paying attention to me, rather than two who each have two other people to watch. I wish I had the luxury of regular dive buddies I could get to feel comfortable with - but given that much of my diving is spur of the moment when I am sent traveling near water, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

 

[TSandM]

I don't think you can count on the training of anybody, unless they've trained in a system that emphasizes awareness and team solidarity. It takes serious work and practice, and a real commitment to value of the principle, to build your awareness to where you can pursue and enjoy your dive but still know pretty much all the time where your buddies are and what they are doing.

OE2X, who is a professional photographer on land, and an avid diver, actually started a thread about this a while back (I'm too lazy to look for it right now). It was his thesis that it was quite possible to execute an acceptable team dive where the team members were photographers. The thread elicited quite a bit of comment on both sides.

I do not think it is possible (at least for me) to be as vigilant and aware of the team and the dive environment when I am carrying a camera as it is when I am not. And I am not a photographer, in the sense that some of the people on SB are. To get pictures like Alcina's or Dennis's, you have to dedicate the dive to the shot. I dive with Mo2vation, who is of the same ilk, and although he is trained the same way I am and is a very fine diver, there is no question that during the composition and acquisition of "the shot", he is not there in the way he is when he is not looking through the camera.

If your awareness and buddy skills start out limited, adding a camera to it all is going to make them pretty poor. If you start out well trained, you're still going to experience a diminution in your ability to be part of a team. It's got to be part of the pre-dive discussion, and the other diver or divers who are diving with you have got to understand that and be okay with it.

I don't think new divers should carry cameras, personally. I think they should develop their buoyancy and their awareness and communication until they are all working well before they add a camera to the mix. (But then, I'm not a photographer, on land or underwater, so my imperatives are different ).

 

[Diver Dennis]

I don't think you can count on the training of anybody, unless they've trained in a system that emphasizes awareness and team solidarity.

Exactly why I solo dive a lot and also the reason I think when you dive at a lot of resorts and don't have a regular dive buddy with you, you should be thinking like a solo diver. I know for a fact that when I am taking photos, every dive, I would be a bad buddy. I am very aware of my surroundings, my gas status and depth but mine only, not for a buddy.

I don't think new divers should carry cameras, personally. I think they should develop their buoyancy and their awareness and communication until they are all working well before they add a camera to the mix. (But then, I'm not a photographer, on land or underwater, so my imperatives are different ).

I agree but the main reason I don't like to see anyone, new or not, carry a camera of they don't have good buoyancy is because it infuriates me to see divers laying on the reef to get a shot or finning up the sand so bad that no one else can take a photo. I grabbed someone's fin yesterday for doing just that and then let the group go on ahead because I wanted to be able to see what I am trying to shoot!